Constants & Variables: How Life is Strange Should Have Ended
by Ninja Nikoletta
Summary: A story where not everything happens the same when you rewind. Maybe things will turn out a little differently than you think. This is dedicated to anyone who wasn't okay with the hard descions at the end of episode 5 and thinks that things could have ended a little differently.


The following contains spoilers from the final episode of life is strange. So there's you spoiler alert. The following also contains the frustration of an avid fangirl that wanted things to happen differently in the end! So I wrote my ending.

This picks up right at the part where Chloe asks you to let her die.

"I can't make this choice." I yelled, my heart breaking in two. I couldn't let my best friend die.

"No, Max. You're the only one that can." Chloe said looking me in the eye. That moment when I looked into her eyes I saw all the places we had gone together flash around us. Everything we had gone through together. The flood of memories both recent and old washed over me and I felt like I was drowning. My chest was crushed, the lump in my throat blocked my air supply. I couldn't do this.

But then as all those scenes played by us as we were frozen in that moment. As they flashed by in fast forward all of a sudden certain things stood out like a beam of light in a dark room, or a highlighter mark on a black and white photo.

The things that stood out were words, and pictures and sounds.

"Just gotta let go"….scrawled on Chloe's wall

"I WANT TO DIE" & "This is much bigger than you." ….graffti, in Chloe's handwriting but I couldn't remember where I saw it.

"Please, I want to face death on my own terms." …..Chole whispering over the sound of her ventilator, her wheel chair in the background.

So many things scattered along the way, almost like clues left through time. But I couldn't obey them could I? But what would happen if I didn't let destiny have its way? I had tried so hard over and over to save Chloe but no matter what I did she kept dying and I kept changing time to save her. But in consequence everything in the world shifted, almost as if each time I stopped fate it tilted the world off its axis a little more. How much longer could I recreate what happened before I was painted into a corner with no choice at all?

If I chose to save Chloe and risk killing everyone else with the storm I created would I eventually end up losing Chloe anyway? Could I really expect to out run fate forever? I was almost at my limit as it was. I didn't have much power left. Was this really the only way? Would everything turn out just like it did the first time?

"Max, if you were ever my friend just do this one thing for me." Chloe said taking me by the shoulders. "It's the way things are supposed to be, if you don't let things happen as they were meant to then I'll just be haunted by misery."

"But Chloe…I can't kill you like that." I protested. I had to yell over the wind it was getting stronger, the tornado was getting closer and we didn't have much more time.

"You wouldn't be killing me Max. You would just be letting things happen as they were meant be." Chloe said.

I turned away, I didn't want to let her convince me. "How can this be what you want?" I cried, the tears I held back burst forth. I was shattering, I couldn't take this anymore. Why did I have to make such a horrible choice?

"This is what I want because it sure beats the alternative." Chloe said. "I mean if we don't stop this storm then the whole town is gonna be a crater. Do you think I want that to happen?" Chloe turned away wrapping her arms around herself, looking so cold and wet and alone.

Chloe was right but I didn't want to admit that. Besides we didn't know that for sure, did we?

"Losing my Dad broke me, I don't want to have my Mom's blood on my hands." Chloe continued. "I couldn't live with that guilt. This is the only way." Chloe turned and looked at me. "Maybe if we let what was meant to happen, happen then things will work out for the best." Chloe suggested.

"No." I shook my head. "It will all happen like it did before. You died. And it will happen again." I said, knowing the same thing would only happen over and over with the same outcome.

"What if that isn't true?" Chloe asked.

I sniffled, trying to talk clearly enough to be understood. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know but I heard this thing once, I can't remember where but it was something about 'constants & variables' Like somethings happen the same but some things vary." Chloe said only confusing me more. "Either way this is our best chance to save everyone."

Taking a step toward me Chloe grabbed my hand that held they photo and lifted it up in front of my face so I was staring at the photo.

"This is the only way Max." She said crying. "Please do what has to be done."

I could barely see through my tears but I focused my gaze on the photo until its color blurred and spread all around me.

And there I was back in the bathroom on the day this all began. I stood over the bucket where the butterfly had landed, the photo of it was just spat out by the camera.

I dropped it and leaned against the wall, trying to stop the dizziness that always came with time travel. I slid to the ground, feeling my heart crack as I tried to keep my crying from making a sound that would give me away.

I heard Nathan come into the bathroom, babbling to himself like he had so many times before when I had rewound to this piece of time.

I heard Chloe checking the stalls and then confronting Nathan, demanding money just like before.

"I'm so sick of everyone trying to control me!" I heard Nathan say. "No one would ever even miss your punk ass would they?"

"Get that gun away from me you psycho!" Chloe screamed just before the shot rang out, followed by a moment of deafening silence.

"No! Oh No! No! no!" I heard Nathan muttering hysterically. "No, I didn't mean to."

I heard his wandering footsteps as knelt by Chloe and then paced only to kneel by her again. But not for long, because about a minute later the door burst open.

"Was that a gunshot?" I heard David Madsen ask, then his voice cut off as he took in the scene.

"Nathan Prescott! What have you done?" He demanded, then softer. "No, Chloe!" As he realized who the victim was. This ignited his rage. I got to my feet just in time to see David slam Nathan's face against the tiled wall and slap the cuffs.

I walked over to where Chloe lay in a pool of her own blood, in an almost fetal position. David knelt by me as another security officer took Nathan away.

"Chloe…." He said, sounding like he was trying to fight back tears.

But then out of the blur of numbness and sadness I noticed something. Before when Nathan had killed Chloe he had shot her square in the stomach, mortally wounding her. But this time….this time was different. Somehow, things had happened differently. The bullet wound was through her shoulder instead.

"Max." David said laying a finger on Chloe's neck. "She still has a pulse."

I gasped. "Is she going to be alright?"

"I don't know, I told Sam to call an ambulance. I'm going to find them and direct them in here."

They took Chloe to the hospital, she had to go through a surgery to remove the bullet. Nathan was arrested and in his traumatized state he spilled everything he knew about Mr. Jefferson. David Madsen and I filled in on the criminating details it took for the police to have more than enough evidence to arrest Mr. Jefferson.

Chloe came out of surgery and the surgeons said that she should be alright. But they couldn't tell for sure until she woke up. So I sat in the squeaky hospital chair hoping and waiting for Chloe to wake up.

I realized that if she did wake up, that to her this would be her first time seeing me in five years. So much had happened and she would never even know it.

At least not yet. And all because Chloe was right. I remembered the words she used 'Constants and Variables'. The thing that had been constant was that she had been shot but the variable was the place the bullet had struck.

And now thanks to Chloe it looked like everything was going to be alright. I hadn't had a vision of the storm since, and I couldn't explain it but some how it felt like everything was back to normal, just like it was before I discovered this power. But it was almost deeper than that, like it was more than normal, extra-normal, like things were more than alright.

I was thinking this when Chloe's eyes fluttered open. "Max Caulfield?" She whispered, her voice sounding hoarse and dry.

"Yeah." I said getting to my feet and grabbing the railing on the side of her bed. "Its me."

"And….Rachel?" Chloe mumbled deliriously. For a second I was worried that Chloe was seeing things. But then I heard a girls voice and turned to see a blonde haired, blue eyed girl leaning against the doorway.

I recognized the face I knew so well after having seen it in all her model photo's, missing posters and the photo under Chloe's bed of them taking a selfie. It was Rachel. Rachel Amber. Another variable in time.

"Glad you didn't decide to go and die on me Chloe." She said coming to stand on the other side of the bed. "I swear, I leave for one day to go to the mountains with Frank and you already found some trouble to get into."

The end.

This is how I would have ended it. Neither ending in the game made me happy. They both made me feel rotten. So here I am at 3 in the morning putting things right. Like they were supposed to happen. You are welcome fellow life is strange fans.

Also I will be writing an epilogue where Max & Warren, Chloe & Treavor, and Rachel & Frank go on a triple date all together and go bowling and have fun because that is how these things are supposed to end. With fun and warm fuzzy feelings! And all your shippings coming true.

LOL

Please tell me what you think of my little piece of post finale episode written fan fic.

And to all you guys who have gone through this same thing like me I want to tell you to be sure and take care of your self.

Eat nutrious food, try to get good sleep and stay hydrated. Post series hangover sickness and shock is something we all have to work through but we can get through it and convalesce together. LOL


End file.
